Twenty-five miles per day. Seven days a week. Five months straight. Fairfield graduate Christian McEvoy ’04 has only big dreams for his small organization that will benefit his run across America to raise money for cancer survivors.
“I just want to help people who have had a bad hand dealt to them,” McEvoy said about his 3,500-mile-run. He said that running across America has always been a dream of his. He can now accomplish his dream and more importantly work for a greater cause.
McEvoy was the featured speaker for the Dinner Series held in Loyola Hall last Thursday. He spoke to 30 students about his efforts to raise money for the Connecticut Challenge Adult Survivorship Center at Yale Cancer. McEvoy said he is looking to raise more than $1 million in donations for the Yale Cancer Center, which will be the biggest cancer center in the nation.
The run, which will begin in July 2006, will start in San Francisco, Calif., and end in Narragansett, R.I., and will make stops at local high schools across the nation to help fundraise for cancer.
McEvoy’s foundation, Challenge America Foundation, is set up to attract high school students throughout each state to run with him. Each high school will raise funds to donate to their own cancer charity.
“We want this to make a difference in their world,” said McEvoy. Challenge America Foundation “gets kids involved in philanthropy by doing crazy things, like running across America.”
McEvoy, who is currently an English teacher at Fairfield Prep, has been involved in triathlons since he was 18 years old. An avid swimmer and resident assistant while he was an undergraduate at Fairfield, McEvoy says that there is no real way to train for something like this.
“I’m very worried about getting sick and injured, but isn’t everyone?” McEvoy said.
He works closely with a trainer to try to strengthen his joints and has a stringent diet in order to keep his body healthy. The first couple of weeks will be hard, said McEvoy, but after that the body just adjusts to the running.
Julie Cronin ’07 was intrigued by the goals of McEvoy.
“His ideas and motivation are inspiring and refreshing,” she said. “The effort he is putting into this and the desire to raise the money for the Yale Cancer Center is amazing.”
Already inspired by his efforts, Kelly Beatty ’07 thinks his run will inspire many people for this good cause.
“Christian really is bringing the Jesuit ideals that he learned here at Fairfield into his run across the country,” said Beatty.
The run across America is planned to start on July 1, 2006 and end, “God-willing, sometime before it snows in Connecticut,” said McEvoy.
McEvoy hopes to raise enough money to help the survivors, but stays humble in his own actions.
“Whatever I do fails in comparison to what cancer survivors do,” he said.
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